Wednesday, 23 April 2014

Welcome to the Normandy stop on the CKCB blog hop today.
You
probably came over from Kim's blog "Texas Cattle Ranching and Scrapbooking" and after you leave me Julene's blog "Julene by Design" over in Oz is the place to
go.

This is the page that I did for Challenge #3 BIG title.

“Bonjour Printemps”

I was inspired by Stephanie's example @ Skyline Paperie “Welcome back Autumn”
to say “Hello to Spring” with a photo of our neighbour Jacques’ sheep and lambs,
in the field at the side of his little village shop, which I took last weekend.

After already doing 7 layouts using my “Indolence Blues” kit
supplies were getting pretty low when it came to this challenge.

I had one
full sheet of patterned paper which I stamped willy nilly down the left side
before layering scraps of my double sided pp’s, vintage sheet music and vellum,
then the photo went on as the final layer.

The tag tucked in behind, the buttons,
flower and arrow were all from the kit but I needed to go into my stash for
the BIG green alpha stickers, PL “to do”card, washi tape, string and greeting
sticker.

Here's another layout that I did for the UKS's April House Challenge of me and my Dad in 2005 and there's one other that I did for my Monthly Scrap-A-Sketch group, which I can't reveal until the 1st May!

Now it’s time for you to hop on over to Julene's to see what she's been up to lately and below you'll find the list of blogs participating in today's blog hop just in case you
wander off in the wrong direction!

Friday, 18 April 2014

On the 1st of April I teased you with 3 questions about me, one of which was false.
Over 20 visitors left a comment and opinions were divided between #1 and #2, was it the butterfly or Cliff?
Well, I can now reveal that Cliff and I did indeed chat whilst waiting to board a flight from Munich to London. The night before he had been in concert at the Munich Olympiahalle and along with about a dozen friends and hundreds of other Cliff fans I had boogied the night away, singing along to all our favourite songs. It would have been rude not to let him know how much we had enjoyed the performance, don't you think?

So, really??

Do I look as if I'd have a tattoo??

Those of you who guessed #1 were correct!

Bethany @CKCB has revealed the incorrect answers and the winner of the giveaway

Wednesday, 16 April 2014

The weekly challenge on UKS last week called for circles, a photograph of an animal and a song title to be included in the layout.

Using Picasa I created a simple collage of two photographs, taken on one of our Sunday walks last summer, of our GS Fleur "talking" to two of the horses that we often see when we go down that way.
Coming up with a suitable title wasn't much of a struggle, Lionel Ritchie's "Hello" came immediately to mind and I thought it was a perfect match.

Any CKCB'ers visiting might be able to spot a few things from my Indolence Blues kit on this page.

The running horse die cut from Dear Lizzy was a no brainer(!) ditto the Toga frame which I placed on the left hand photo to add depth to the layout. The circles were punched out of a template from my Carnets de Scrap magazine.

Cardstock, buttons & tags were also from the kit but I had to dip into my stash for the two butterflies, a couple of extra embellies and the pale blue alphas, pp's are all teresa collins' "He said She said" collection.

Saturday, 12 April 2014

When I introduced my Indolence Blues kit I did mention that it was quite a bit smaller than the usual "everything but the kitchen sink" kits that I usually put together.
For the CKCB Pocket Page Inspiration challenge I had to delve into my stash as I hadn't included any of these cards in the April kit.

The 4x6 inch TODAY card is from the Basic Grey waterfall theme pack "Capture".
I also pulled out 2 complementary die cut borders from theresa collins.

The journaling on the card reads:

"In July 2011 I blogged this photograph for a magazine copycat challenge. Inspired by Campagne Decoration" magazine".
If you would like to visit my other blog "Normandy Life" and read the original post click here.

The greeny/blue cardstock, the red zig zig patterned paper "Ferris Wheel" and the sunshine and heart die cuts from Dear Lizzy came from my kit, as did the torn piece of a vintage sheet music.
The yellow alpha stickers, Basic Grey's "hello luscious", and the green Tiny Type from Cosmo Cricket came from stash.

moments by maska

My LO is loosely based on another great sketch by Maska, found on Pinterest.
Here's a link to her blog, Maska, spookily enough has also been a CSI "Special Agent".
I'm drawn to so many of her pages - there's always so much going on with paint, layers, torn scraps of paper & loads of stamping - which is really strange because I'm not a messy scrapper myself.
Clean and simple is my usual style, I do love layering and clusters of embellies and lately I've taken to adding a hand drawn doodled frame around the edges of the page.

However, after I'd thought I'd finished with this page I decided to get out a couple of stamps and a TH Distress Stain in China Blue to add some extra texture. I'm not sure it worked very well, think I'll have to practice a little more before I feel comfortable with the "Maska" artistic style of scrapping.

Tuesday, 8 April 2014

It's such a joy to be the Guest Designer on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog this month.
I'm loving the way Bethany has thrown the rules out of the window (just for April, I hasten to add!) my Indolence Blues kit is really working to the max.
This is the sketch that I chose for the sketch challenge that's replacing the "Hey I Can Make That" tutorial this month.

It's a sketch by Maska that I found on Pinterest (I spend waay too much time on Pinterest!) and fell in love with.
Keeping with the Indolence Blues theme I chose 4 photographs taken as we wandered around Kos Town last September.
A jaunty colourful day tripper boat ready to whisk you off to Turkey.
The sunken Botanical gardens of a ancient, ruined Roman villa.
Pleasure boats in Kos harbour.
An archetypal whitewashed Greek church with a red roof.

Delving into my kit I picked a fancypantsdesign patterned paper called "Baubles" and since it's not Christmas I flipped it over to the other side for the coordinating stripe.

I had a piece of the Maggie Holmes "Happy Day" dotty patterned paper leftover from my first LO which I thought would go well with the stripes, added some tags from my stash and made two others from stash off cuts.
I inked some circles in chalkboard white and black, did some stamping and added a Martha Stewart punched butterfly. My favourite punch!

The little chevrons, flower and title "Lovely" are from a Dear Lizzy kit that I've had a while, obviously they've been waiting for the right sketch to come along, and voila!

Click here to go to the CKCB and visit the Design Team blogs for more inspirational sketches.
Thanks for visiting and come back again soon.

Wednesday, 2 April 2014

As you probably know by now the inspiration for the CKCB counterfeit kit this month is the CSI's Case File 112.
A different sort of challenge and a new way of looking at things with a colour palette to use and prompts in the form of "Evidence" and "Testimony" to get us thinking.
As soon as I read the words "dream vacation" I knew that I had the perfect photo for my first LO, I just needed to decide which one.

not this one, although it could have been

In September 2013 the Senior Partner and I went on an “all inclusive” holiday, a dream vacation indeed.

Off we flew to the Michelangelo Resort & Spa situated on the north eastern coast of the beautiful Greek Island of Kos.

not this one either, gorgeous as it is.

So many shades of blue on blue, so calming and relaxing.

Combine these views with amazing Spa treatments, wonderful food and delicious cocktails every evening and you’ll see why I've called my kit this month “Indolence Blues”.

For my LO I finally chose a photograph taken from the terrace outside our room, looking across the pool & gardens and out over the blue Aegean Sea to the Turkish coastline beyond.

From the kit I took a sheet of blue cardstock, then began layering.
First a page of vintage sheet music, then dotty pp, tags and a page from the old school book.

The final layer beneath the photograph was a simple pocket that I made from the vellum sheet, then I slid the "Best Day Ever" journaling tag inside. Once the photograph was in place I placed one of the Toga frames off centre on top, stamped a flock of seabirds flying overhead, added a beautiful butterfly a couple of buttons and a strip of chevron washi tape, a quick spritz of Adirondack Color Wash in Denim and voila c'est fini.

The journaling reads:

“The time we spent on the Greek Island of Kos was a dream vacation. The views were amazing; the sunlight reflected in the pool was only surpassed by the moonlight on the azure blue Aegean Sea.”

Thanks for stopping by on the blog hop today, I hope that you'll come back again during the next few weeks when I'll be revealing my take on the inspiring challenges thought up by the CKCB Design Team.

Monday, 10 March 2014

Without the inspiration from outside sources such as the Design Team @ Counterfeit Kit blog and the very talented scrappers at UK Scrappers I think my scrapping mojo would almost disappear.
I also subscribe to a wonderful French scrap booking mag "Carnets de Scrap", leafing through it's pages is my idea of scrapping heaven.
The March House challenge @UKS has been set by Suzy, a lady that I have come to know quite well through the monthly Scrap-A-Sketch group.
This is the sketch she challenged us with this month.

My take on it featuring some of the amazing daffodils blooming in our garden right now, they brighten up my day and tell me that warmer weather is on the way.

Wednesday, 5 March 2014

Here's the first LO done with my "Early Morning" CKCB forged kit of the month for the weekly challenge at UK Scrappers.

The brick wall background paper is the Maggie Holmes "Aperature" for cratepaper, I like the way it repeats the pattern of the brick walls behind the boys in the photo.
Even though it's in black & white I just bet those walls were red brick!
Did you spot the cricket wicket painted on the back wall beneath the window?

The journaling cards are from 4heures37, the CLIC CLAC frame is from Toga, die cut words & shapes from Fancy Pants stash, there's a Jenny Bowlin note on there, too..
When I showed the LO to the Senior Partner he finally remembered the names of both boys. Keith is sitting on the left and John is on the right. I'll have to go back and write their names on before I forget!

Tuesday, 4 March 2014

The main kit is
Colour Swatch and there are some great papers and embellishments in it.

Sunshine Kit from Cocoa Daisy

There are lots of add on kits to choose from too and Mood Board caught my eye straightaway.

Mood Board Kit from Cocoa Daisy

I've been dying to use some fab chalkboard stickers and tags from Toga that I found recently so I mixed and matched from Mood Board and Colour Swatch to create my kit.

Forged Sunshine Kit #1

I’m calling my kit “Early Morning” because the colours all
remind me of the view from my bedroom window this month, slate grey/blue skies layered
with streaks of pinky sunrise and wonderful yellow daffodils growing beside the
stone walls which make such a striking background.

Despite being sick in bed for 4 days this week, suffering from stomach flu, I have managed to make quite a hole in my kit - 4 LO's and 3 identical tags.

When February's challenge #1 was posted on CKCB those Ugly Sweaters made me cringe, especially when I remembered some of the jumpers and cardigans I'd draped my body with in the oh so un-trendy 1970's.

Thankfully, no photographic evidence of those clothing faux pas remains and I was more than happy to roam around Pinterest to locate someone else's woolly nightmare.

the perfect Christmas gift for the man who has everything?

The patterns and colours are a perfect match for my kit, this is the LO that this Ugly Sweater inspired.

the view from my work table looking out across my very cluttered
attic craft room

as I'd hoped, I was able to use up lots of stash embellies on my page

love the way it all came together so well

The UKS February Tag Swap theme was "Lurrrrve"................ and I had just the kit for it.

and here are my LO's for the UKS weekly challenges - 2 & 3.

week 2
"missus b" (that's me BTW) was our ebay sellers name when we began selling vintage and antique French faience in 1999.
with our 2 dogs Blue & Bess we traveled all over France having the time of our lives for about 5 years

week 3
when an unexpected snowstorm in March 2013 blocked our driveway
the Senior Partner and his dog Fleur were in their element!

That's all I can share for now as the 4th LO that I've made using the kit is part of my Chinese Whispers Circle Journal and I can't, on pain of death, breath a word about it on my blog until all 12 LO's have been completed......I hope to do a full reveal of them at the end of 2014.

I wonder how much they will have changed?

So, thanks for stopping by.

I hope you've enjoyed this visit to Normandy.

If you get lost anywhere en route you can always check the CKCB where you'll find the full list of blogs participating in today's hop.

Normandy Life

About Me

Home is a 16th/18th century former Presbytery situated in a tiny village, surrounded by beautiful Normandy countryside.
I share it with my lovely husband and best friend of over 37 years, and M'selle Fleur our gorgeous German Shepherd.